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Music Geek Track of the Day: Tori Amos Covers Radiohead’s ‘Creep’

Radiohead’s “Creep” is one of those tunes that’s so omnipresent in our lives it’s easy to take for granted and dismiss. But this week, on August 13, spaghetti-haired mood manipulator Tori Amos demonstrated once more why it’s a song that demands our attention. Under a heavy spotlight, Amos debuted her interpretation of “Creep” at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, during the “Lizard Lounge” section of her live show. Bringing her trademark breathy vocals, dramatic showmanship, and piano mastery to the piece, the bespectacled songwriter recorded it via crowd-shot, multiple cameras, and you can watch the cinematic results below.

Tori Amos’ fourteenth album, Unrepentant Geraldines, was released in May of this year. And though it’s a solid effort that’s generated positive feedback from critics, I confess I’ve always had a soft spot for her cover tunes. She has, of course, used her inimitable vocals and arrangements to craft memorable covers of other modern classics, most notably those on her Strange Little Girls LP. For my money, her take on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teenage Spirit” (found on her 1992 Crucify EP) has long been the best of her reinterpretations, despite the fact that Kurt Cobain infamously referred to as “a great breakfast cereal version.” One wonders then what Thom Yorke thinks of the way she ups the naughtiness in “Creep” with a couple of well-placed F-bombs. How about you? Radiohead hasn’t performed “Creep” in concert in a while. Should the band bring it back? Let us know in the comments section below!

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Comments

  1. Holly says:

    I have followed Tori for going on 25 years. And I really like her covers (“Wrapped Around Your Finger” is one of my favs). I didn’t have an issue with the song, but it just rang false. It is such an outsider track, and here she was, in the midsts of a super supportive crowd. It just didn’t fit. We all know what you are doing here, it’s the tribe you created.

  2. FosterJ says:

    The Emine SARI’s version of Radiohead’s “Creep” might be the best cover I’ve ever heard. Blows me away every time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKL3B9bqfYU

  3. Greg Easton says:

    Former star does cover of same popular Radiohead song that everyone else on Earth has already done.  And this is newsworthy?  

  4. Nathan says:

    I love Tori, I love Radiohead…but this is swill. She could have covered so many better songs by Radiohead, but she did the most overplayed song by them. Not impressed.

  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g7TznJLd50 is a more interesting cover that was released this week.

  6. She did a pretty epic cover of Karma Police a while back. Tori’s covers are never by the book, she always turns them into another entity entirely

  7. Dan Luedke says:

    Anyone who thinks her butchering of Smells Like Teen Spirit is not someone I can take seriously. At all.

    • Dan Luedke says:

      Feel free to replace the word “thinks” with the word “likes”. Otherwise my statement makes no sense.

    • amanda says:

      she’s not butchering shit. its her version. god

    • Amber Ridgdill says:

      Well, in that same vein, a lot of people can’t take seriously artists that only make instrumental music for TV ads and such… that doesn’t make it any less valid of an art form now does it lol

  8. Brian says:

    Creep has always had the f-bombs.  The version without them is the radio edit.

    • Alan says:

      Listen. There is extras. 

    • Patti says:

      She added one extra one. “whatever you f***ing want” is not in the original version. She also extended the bridge by singing the line 3 times, instead of holding onto the notes where it goes “She run, run, run ruuuun…ruuuun”. My band does this song, and I sing that part. She has a gorgeous voice, though. 

    • Clara says:

      True but the original doesn’t use it right away in the first verse and she added it one other place